[ExI] Update on the Hawaiian observatory shutdown

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Wed, Sep 11, 2019 at 12:53 AM Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
> Quoting Rafal Smigrodzki:
>
> >
> https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/08/civil-beat-poll-strong-support-for-tmt-but-little-love-for-ige/
> >
> > Of note, 44% of native Hawaiians support the telescope while 48%
> > oppose it. Also most of the opposition to the telescope, regardless of
> > race, is from people under 50 years of age.
> >
> > ### Well, yes, exactly what I wrote - lots of Hawaiians are racist
> > and use the telescope issue as an excuse to stick it to Haole. 48%
> > qualifies as "lots", doesn't it?
>
> I am sure there are plenty of racists of all stripes but the data does
> not bear out "sticking it to the haole" as the primary motivation for
> opposing the telescope. For one thing, your hypothesis does not
> account for the 34% of "haolis" i.e. caucasians who oppose the
> telescope.


## I think whites are trying to get brown points, that is appear less white
by championing separatist and racist movements by non-whites. Media and
many professors now insinuate it's shameful or at least suspicious to be
white, and many react in this way. Also some whites hate elite white
pursuits, like pure science, so there is a class dimension to some of the
opposition. People are weird.

I just started reading Amy Chua's "Political Tribes". Interesting so far.
Mainstream Americans and people like me, who have difficulty warming up to
group causes in general, tend to underestimate the power of ethnic
sentiments. It looks like normal people in their natural habitat tend to
naturally hate each other over trifles. Even if I don't have the capability
to develop a national attachment, I realize now that ignoring such
propensity is perilous, both at the individual and at the national level.
If you don't pay attention in whose neighborhood you set up shop, you may
get shot during the next round of riots. If a nation allows too many
hostile aliens inside, it will be perverted by the hostility they bring and
by the hostility they evoke in the host population. Nice neighborhoods get
ruined by the wrong neighbors.
 -------------------

> Also, what do astronomers and an internationally-available
> telescope have to do with race, caucasian or otherwise?


### Big technology, big science - these are white and Asian themes.

-------------------

> The Japanese
> and Chinese registered voters are overwhelmingly in support of the
> telescope.


### Fits the stereotype of Asians being sciency.

Let me be clear - if there is one pursuit I hold sacred, it is the pursuit
of knowledge. It is noble and magnificent to build the temple of truth.
Regular hatred I can take in stride but an assault on a major shrine of my
faith angers me, perhaps disproportionately.

Rafal
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